Cheotsarang sasu gwolgidaehoe

CRAZY FIRST LOVE (2003) Directed by Oh Jong-rok. Typically overblown tragicomedy that signifies much of what westerners find inaccessible about Korean cinema and, to some extent, the Korean psyche. Let's call this lecture Misogyny and the Posessive, Overgrown Man-Child. To protect the virtue of his daughter (Son Ye-jin), an authoritarian high-school teacher (Yoo Dong-geun) sets - and keeps changing - unreasonable standards for the young slacker (MY SASSY GIRL's Cha Tae-hyn) who has loved her since childhood, then must work WITH him when she grows tired of their constant meddling and surveillance and becomes involved with another man. Korean men do not come off particularly well in this film (but then,that would depend on who you asked). They're either shallow gadflies or control freaks with maturity issues. How fitting, then, that the only way the male filmmakers could rationalize their crazed behaviour in the greater social theme of things is to slap the progressive-minded female lead with myelodysplastic syndrome, the same terminal disease - read punishment - that killed her mother at 18. Faced with her own immortality, and in a scene far, FAR too reminiscent of MY SASSY GIRL, we FINALLY discover why she couldn't be with the man who has gone to insane lengths to win her affection and why she COULD be with a lothario who will one day find happiness with yet another woman.

While it's tough to deny the calculation behind emotional scenes like those that end this film - and in Korean cinema scenes like these are legion - one can't shake the feeling that for Korean comedic cinema - indeed MUCH of Korean cinema in general - to truly move on and perhaps capture a larger international audience, Korean filmmakers may need to dispense with a great deal of the contrived, subtly misogynistic heart string manipulation that, ultimately, reinforces dated stereotypes about patriarchy, makes childish men look like pariahs and punishes women for thinking outside the box. People crying on mountaintops (and this film is has one!) are starting to wear thin. See also SEX IS ZERO for a similar treatment of these themes. 3

Okay, so most of the other reviews are making comparisons with My Sassy Girl. Why the heck would you compare a romantic comedy to My Sassy Girl? Which was/is the best romantic comedy to date(Most people would agree). Any romantic comedy compared to My Sassy Girl would of course be not up to par.

I give this a 8/10 or so. The story was actually not a bad one. The ending is somewhat a cliffhanger and allows the viewer to determine what happens(which I don't personally like in a movie) but whether it be a happy or sad ending it was still pretty good. This definitely deserves better than a 5.1 though. I would say it have at least a 6.0 Everyone is complaining about Cha Tae-hyun's character just screaming to be funny. Well, that is his character in the movie, that is his personality so I don't know why you would complain about it. Also, Son Ye-jin's character is supposed to be a crier. If any of you had the slightest clue of why she did what she did then you would understand why she cried so much. Yun Dong-geun did a great job as well. His character changed dramatically because he became better friends with Cha Tae-hyun.

People need to look deeper into a film than just judge the general film itself. Why the heck bother to write a review if you do not fully understand the movie's plot.

The synopsis of the movie is mentioned in other reviews, so I'm just going to tell you what I didn't like about this movie. It's far too inconsistent and what starts off as a light comedy - in the mold of say, My Sassy Girl or 100 Days with Mr Arrogant - skews into soap-opera melodrama at the drop of a hat, with all players involved shouting and crying their way through proceedings. Tae-hyun Cha, who was pretty good alongside the fabulous Ji-hyun Jun in My Sassy Girl, is mistaken when he thinks that screaming at the top of his voice constitutes good comedy while all Ye-jin Son has to do is stand around and cry a lot. If you like shopping for the odd Oriental movie on auction sites and are looking for a nice comedy, I would recommend either of the previously mentioned titles, including Spy Girl and the 2 My Wife is a Gangster movies.

This is a painfully awful film. I've seen worse, but not lately (It's worse than CATWOMAN, even!). I usually find something good to write about in all the Asian films I watch, especially the Korean comedies. This one has absolutely nothing. It's not funny, it's not romantic, and i already have 4 year old that whines all day long, so why would i want to kill nearly 2 more hours of my day listening to a grown man do it. The only saving grace is the lead actress, but unfortunately it is for her beauty and not her acting.

Save your dollars for the "better" comedic films like "My Wife is a Gangster", "100 Days with Mr. Arrogant" or even "Please Teach Me English". Your brain will thank you (maybe).

Yun Dong-geun, a veteran actor (Who's Got the Tape, Marrying the Mafia), Cha Tae-hyun (My Sassy Girl, Lover's Concerto), and the beautiful Son Ye-jin (A Moment to Remember, Lover's Converto, The Classic) are not enough to turn the tables of this horrible movie. The story is plain Grade 'C' boring and resorts to male pubic hair anecdotes to capture our attention in the first 20 minutes of the movie. It failed.

Seeing that Crazy First Love was produced in 2003 made me feel more disgusted. There were far more better romance/comedy Korean movies made before 2003. Timeless classics such as 'My Sassy Girl' (2001), 'My Wife is a Gangster' (2001), 'Sex is Zero' (2002), 'Marrying the Mafia' (2002) can easily topple Crazy First Love in terms of entertainment value and storyline. I thought 'Wet Dreams' (2002) was done in bad taste, full of male organ and nonsense jokes. However Crazy First Love brought the definition of bad taste to a whole new level.

There are better Korean movies to watch. Do not waste your life on this movie.

Mao points: 2/10